Age of Life
by RileyArcher
Summary: A return to Daryl and Hunter Dixon's life, as the second fall of the prison has occurred and they are once more on the road with their rag-tag family. Merle/Carol, Sasha/Abraham, Rick/Michonne, Carl/Enid, Daryl/Hunter, Morgan, Tara, Eugene, and Gabriel. Plus, lots of children. X.x


Hunter stretched lazily across the dirt, yawning. Her hair spilling out around her. She groaned slightly to herself, and closed her eyes. It had been eight days since everything went to shit. Eight. She groaned, somewhere nearby Carl and Enid were shushing the babies. They had had almost three years of peace shifting between the prison, Morgan House, and Greene house. In a week they lost it all. Chance had just celebrated his tenth birthday when they came, the Claimers. They took everything they had and then some.

Hershel, Fawn and Beth were four, and pretty good at killing walkers already, it was something that startled Daryl, how efficient his children were. Judith was seven, and eager to learn how to track. Maggie, Glenn, Theo, Axel and Sophie were all solid three year olds. Each one totted and whined they all seemed to need or want something. Sam, at probably 16, was the one child Hunter didn't have to worry about.

Almost thirty Claimers moved on the prison, pushing them, as they did, they moved as planned. Hunter and Carol opened the tombs, while Daryl and Merle ushered the children onto the school bus, Morgan drove them to safety, the others fought their way in tight formation out the back and onto the ridge behind the administrative buildings. Since then, they had been on the road again.

Rick, Michonne, Sasha, Abraham, and Morgan were all keeping on watch. Merle and Carol were already fast asleep as the sun was setting. Enid and Carl were in the church van/bus that housed the children, and they were cooing them to sleep. Sam sat beside Daryl, their shoulder's touching as Hunter stretched out and stared hard at the stars.

Before the prison fell, and before they decided as a family not to head towards their other two safe havens – they had no clue how long they had been watched, how long the Claimers had been planning. They had just moved back to the prison, when they claimers came. They had discovered that Enid was pregnant. Sasha and Abraham had just welcomed a little life – Tyler into the world, and she was weak. All the running these days reminded them all how much they hated being on the run. How much each day was not guaranteed.

Rick stretched lazily. "Hunter, Daryl, Merle." He called his hunters to him. "Want you three to scout the area first thing tomorrow, find us an atlas, we have to decide what we are going to do. We can't live in the woods, but maybe we can get some sort of haven…" Rick looked anxious. At the prison he had relied heavily on Daryl and Hunter, to run the show while he worked on figuring out what he and Michonne were, what his family needed. The prison had not been good to Rick.

Lori haunted him without trepidation, he always seemed to tether lightly between the worlds. So for the other's it was always a relief when they moved from the prison to the Greene house or the Morgan house. Each transition, also reminded them of the troubles of the past.

They found themselves stretched out around an old hunting cabin, they had drove hard, and quick, they were out of Georgia and into Alabama and far away from the Claimers when the car stopped, out of gas, and everywhere around them picked clean. For the time being, they seemed to float hazily in transition.

As the sun crested the next morning, the three hunters diligently moved into the woods and onto the main road, following signs to a rest area. Once they cleared it Daryl found Hunter with her hands on her hips, a smile pulling at her lips. She was looking over the map. "We are close to Athens." She said after a moment.

Daryl nodded looking at the map. "Where to then?"

"Mobile?" Merle joked, making both the younger hunters laugh.

Merle was looking older, his face wrinkled more, and his last scruffs of brownish-blonde hair greying. Daryl could see the age in his eyes, how tired his brother was. He had not lived an easy life, if anything it was a wonder he had even made it to the turn. Hunter, his youthful bride, barley looked legal still. He reckoned she was in her early twenties by this point, but age was lost on him, time was lost on him.

She had taken at some point to writing down the histories of those they had encountered, everything that had happened to them as a whole from the start of the Turn. She called it "Dead Men's Tales." He wondered if that was some sort of joke, but Merle was eager to tell his part, like he saw the signs of aging. She recorded meticulously who they were before, where they were when it started, and how they came to be together. She also recorded the number of humans they killed, not walkers.

Daryl grumbled, thinking back briefly to the folks that they had taken in when they started accepting folks at the prison, they were all still at the Morgan house. Rick never fully accepted them as family, he supposed none of them did, but one of the women was from Mobile.

"We follow 65, up towards Nashville." Hunter was tapping her forefinger on her lower lip. Her right hand tracing the path she thought they should take. "We would pass through Ardmore, keep on trucking and make our way to a more rural area, like Edmonson County, Kentucky." She paused.

Daryl and Merle had never traveled much. "What is in that county?" Merle asked after a spell.

A smile lit up her face, "Mammoth Cave National Park. It's remote and a lot of places we could build up houses, spring water, and long systems we could hide in." Hunter was thumbing through the offered brochures at the rest stop. "Aha, here we go."

She thrust it at Daryl, and headed towards the vending machine. Merle shrugged and followed behind her. She nodded her head at Merle, and he punched the glass fronts of the machines, shards clattering to the ground. Quickly she loaded her and Merle's packs down with everything the vending machine had to offer, her eyes sought Daryl who was still looking over the brochure. "A'ight." He said finally nodding at her.

She took his hand in hers, and they followed Merle back the way they came back towards camp where Rick was waiting to hear their options, waiting to see if the hunters had found them somewhere safe to head towards.

"We could always head back for Alexandria." Daryl mused to Rick, his eyes on the ground.

"You three didn't like the walls." Michonne chuckled.

"Like the thought of the more, now." Hunter grunted.

Merle picked up his sweet Maggie, letting her rest her head against his shoulder, Carol and Chance nearby. Eyes always watching, Daryl found his children dancing around his, Hunter, and Sam's legs. "We could push for that, but not until Enid has her baby." Carl spoke even, reasonable.

"Agreed. So until then, we make our way towards Mammoth Cave National Park." Rick agreed.


End file.
